Tsunami generated by an earthquake in Cook Strait could sweep kilometres inland within three or four minutes, putting the lives of up to 170,000 Wellington residents at risk.

There would be no time for any warnings and people need to think now about how they can get to higher ground immediately after a strong quake, says Wellington Region Emergency Management officer Rian van Schalkwyk.

"The magnitude of that quake and tsunami in Japan is the sort of thing we can expect here. The moment there is a big local quake that is so strong that you can't stand upright, you need to get to higher ground or up in a building as quickly as possible. There is no time to hop in a car to drive away – just go up as quickly as possible.

"In Japan the quake was 200 kilometres offshore, but for us it could be 15km to 20km ..."

A tsunami caused by a quake that close "could be 15 metres high and it will come into the harbour and destroy everything in its path", he said.

The biggest threats were faults through Cook Strait and the Wairarapa coast and the possibility of huge landslides in the Cook Strait trench.

Mr van Schalkwyk said the tsunami triggered by the 8.2 magnitude quake on the Wairarapa Fault in 1855 was up to five metres high when it swept over Lyall Bay and Kilbirnie into Evans Bay.

A 10-metre wave struck Palliser Bay on the south Wairarapa coast. The tsunami also flooded Porirua Harbour, and hit Titahi Bay and the Kapiti Coast.

Mr van Schalkwyk said Greater Wellington regional council had drawn up maps showing evacuation zones for the most vulnerable areas. In the red, orange and yellow zones people need to be prepared to evacuate if there is a tsunami. The red zone is mainly for beach areas that could be hit by a one-metre tsunami generated thousands of kilometres away and during which people are advised to stay off the beaches.

The orange zone is based on a tsunami similar to that which happened in 1855, and the yellow zone is based on how far the devastation might extend if a 10-metre wave struck.

A tsunami of that size would threaten Wellington's commercial heart – the waterfront, the central business district and all the flat land as far south as the Basin Reserve, the suburbs of Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Kilbirnie, Miramar, Seatoun, Eastbourne, much of Lower Hutt, Titahi Bay, Porirua, Plimmerton, Paekakariki, Paraparaumu, Waikanae and Otaki.

Hektoria and Crane glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula have continued thinning since the Larsen-B ice shelf’s collapse in 2002. They are considered to be among some of the fastest changing in recent years. Almost the entire Larsen B Ice Shelf splintered and collapsed in just over one month period. Researchers had never witnessed such a large area—3,250 square kilometers (1,250 square miles) disintegrate so rapidly.

The collapse of the Larsen appears to have been due to a series of warm summers on the Antarctic Peninsula, which culminated with an exceptionally warm summer in 2002. Significant surface melting due to warm air temperatures created melt ponds that acted like wedges; they deepened the crevasses and eventually caused the shelf to splinter.

An ice shelf is a thick floating tongue of ice, fed by a tributary glacier, extending into the sea off a land mass. Previous research showed that the recent collapse of several ice shelves in Antarctica led to acceleration of the glaciers that feed into them.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Glaciology, the 15 glaciers that flow into the Larsen-B ice shelf have lost more than 10 million tons of mass per year. The longest tributary glacier is Crane Glacier on the northern edge of Larsen B drainage basin, which has retreated by more than 12 km (7 miles) since the collapse of ice shelf. The Crane Glacier underwent 90 meters of thinning in 2004-2005, and its total elevation change – 180 meters – rivals that which has occurred at Hektoria and Green in recent years.

Between 2002 and 2006, Hektoria and Green glaciers lost an average of 4.2 gigatons of ice per year; between 2006 and 2011, they lost 5.6 gigatons per year. In their lower reaches, the two glaciers have lost about 220 meters (720 feet) of vertical thickness since 2002. The Evans, Punchbowl, and Jorum glaciers have also thinned over the years, though not as much dramatic.

While the collapse of the Larsen B was unprecedented in terms of scale, it was not the first ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula to experience an abrupt break up. The northernmost section of the Larsen Ice Shelf Complex, called Larsen A, lost about 1,500 square kilometers of ice in an abrupt event in January 1995. Following the even more spectacular collapse in 2002, the Larsen A and B glaciers experienced an abrupt acceleration, about 300% on average, and their mass loss went from 2–4 gigatons per year in 1996 and 2000 (a gigaton is one billion metric tonnes), to between 22 and 40 gigatonnes per year in 2006

Significant Earthquake swarms in Victoria Australia in 2009 and 2012, research and analysis video covering a possible mechanism and cause of both events which seem to propagate through the flinders ranges in South Australia migrating east into the Strzelecki Ranges in victoria.

Southeastern Australia Earthquake Swarms 2009/2012

Published on Oct 29, 2012 by SolarWatcherSignificant Earthquake swarms in Victoria Australia in 2009 and 2012, research and analysis video covering a possible mechanism and cause of both events which seem to propagate through the flinders ranges in South Australia migrating east into the Strzelecki Ranges in victoria.More of these videos for specific locations around the globe will be uploaded to document these earthquake swarms. (Next video will cover the Gulf Of California)

Re: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT WHITE ISLAND VOLCANO??? New Zealand/Kermadec & South Pacific QUAKE/VOLCANO WATCH

Moe 27 Oct 2012 Earthquake

Published on Oct 29, 2012 by spaceweavelShort film about the latest in a series of earthquakes to strike near Moe, Victoria, Australia on the 27th October 2012 at 3:43pm local time. It is mapped in relation to the other quakes that have occured since October 2011.This quake had a magnitude of 3.0 & an epi-focus 12km deep.

The Moe Earthquakes 9 Oct 2011 to 25 July 2012

Published on Jul 26, 2012 by spaceweavelThe earthquakes that have occured near Moe, Victoria, Australia between 2011 and present are mapped onto Google earth with annotations of magnitude, depth, time & dates.

Moe 20 july 2012 4.5 M Earthquake

Published on Jul 20, 2012 by spaceweavelEarly reports from the USGS are used to plot the 20th July 4.5 M quake onto Google Earth. Data may be refined at a later stage.Category:

Moe Earthquake Cluster 19 June to 17 July 2012

Published on Jul 17, 2012 by spaceweavelOn July 17th 2012 two more earthquakes struck near Moe, Victoria, Australia. I have plotted these two quakes along with the others that have occured in the region since 19 June 2012 with annotations of depth and strength.

Moe Aftershock of 18 July 2012

Published on Jul 19, 2012 by spaceweavelThe latest of tremors to strike near Moe on the 18th July 2012 is mapped with the other quakes since the 19th June.

Re: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT WHITE ISLAND VOLCANO??? New Zealand/Kermadec & South Pacific QUAKE/VOLCANO WATCH

Drouin Earthquake 31 OCT 2012

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by spaceweavelEarthquake occuring near Drouin, Victoria, Australia mapped to Google Earth with local faultlines, seismograph & relationship to a previous quake illustrated.

Korumburra 29 oct 2012

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by spaceweavelThe aftershocks rumbling near Korumburra, Victoria, Australia continue with the latest occuring on the 29 Oct 2012. This quake is mapped onto Google Earth, with its relationship with faultlines & seismic events from 2009 onward included.

Re: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT WHITE ISLAND VOLCANO??? New Zealand/Kermadec & South Pacific QUAKE/VOLCANO WATCH

Korumburra earthquake cluster 2009-2012

Published on Jun 20, 2012 by spaceweavel44 of the largest tremors to occur near Korumburra are mapped to Google Earth with annotations of magnitude & depth. Some description of the geology of the area.

Korumburra earthquakes.wmv

Uploaded by spaceweavel on Dec 24, 2011Using Google Earth, 3 years of earthquakes near Korumburra, Victoria, Australia are mapped, with annotations of depth and magnitude.

Re: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT WHITE ISLAND VOLCANO??? New Zealand/Kermadec & South Pacific QUAKE/VOLCANO WATCH

RAREST WHALE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIMEThe world's rarest whale, previously only known from a few bones, was seen for the first time on a New Zealand beach, according to a new Current Biology paper.

The elusive marine mammal is the spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii). The good news is that it was seen at all, revealing that it still exists. The bad news is that the sighting was of a mother and her male calf, both of which became stranded and died on the beach. [link to news.discovery.com]

WTH? read further-The discovery actually happened two years ago, when the whales live-stranded and died on Opape Beach, New Zealand. It's only after DNA analysis that the identification of the rare species was made. At first, they were incorrectly identified as being the much more common Gray's beaked whales.

"When these specimens came to our lab, we extracted the DNA as we usually do for samples like these, and we were very surprised to find that they were spade-toothed beaked whales," Constantine said. "We ran the samples a few times to make sure before we told everyone."- 2 years to run DNA? I want this job!!!.lol.

Blowout in Gulf of Mexico: Wellhead releasing ‘unknown product’ into water off Louisiana coast (MAP)

Quoting: Earth Cries

Betcha this is what it is as the key word was 'unlikely' fueled by the current ocean weather events and water temps rising it's a toxic death bloom that wasn't supposed to ever surface.ELE? of the day-Why did the EPA allow BP to disperse Corexit in such vast amounts without ever examining it's effects on marine life? The containment and absorbent boom that BP is deploying around beaches and marshes—largely ineffectively—is designed to do just that: contain and absorb oil. But the Corexit dispersant BP has flooded onto the leaking wellhead 5,000 feet down, and sprayed from the air onto the surface—some 2 million gallons in total—is designed to break up the oil. "Which one is it?" asks Safina. "Do you want to contain it or disperse it? It makes absolutely no sense to be doing both. Let's face it, with pollution, you count your lucky stars if you have what's called point-source pollution, that is, a single identifiable localized source of pollution, like the Deepwater Horizon. So what's BP doing with that? They're turning it into the worst pollution nightmare of them all: non-point-source pollution."

That's because untreated oil quickly rises to the surface, where it can be skimmed with relative ease. But it becomes a submerged plume, unlikely to ever float to the surface, and destined to migrate through underwater currents to the entire Gulf basin and eventually the North Atlantic. "Oil is toxic to most life," says Steiner. "And Corexit is toxic to most life. But the most toxic of all is oil that's been treated with Corexit. Plus, dispersants may well kill the ocean's first line of defense against oil: the natural microbes that break oil down for other microbes to eat." The EPA has never seriously examined Corexit's effects on marine life (see "Bad Breakup"). Now it'll get the biggest and baddest field experiment of all time, as the flora and fauna of the shallows and the deep scattering layer collide with the dispersed plumes. [link to www.motherjones.com]

November 5, 2012 – EARTH – A drop in crop yields in the UK and many other grain producing countries, as a result of extreme weather, has increased prices worldwide, and may cause serious hardship. But these consequences would be dwarfed by the catastrophe that a volcano could unleash on a heavily populated planet. Evidence unearthed in London’s Spitalfields of mass graves, dated to 1258, shows that between 20 and 40 bodies were buried at once in a series of pits in the cemetery. There were both sexes, with adults and children together. They are believed to be famine victims because they had no battle injuries and it was a century before the Black Death. The same year the monk Matthew Paris of St Albans recorded “unendurable cold” in the winter that suspended all cultivation and killed calves. In June spring had still not arrived and wheat was so scarce that “a very large number of poor people died.” Contemporary chroniclers in other continents also record appalling weather and mass starvation. Geologists have found that over both hemispheres, as far south as Antarctica, there is a thick layer of volcanic ash from the same period. The sheer quantity of aerosols projected into the atmosphere would have blotted out the sun and wiped out crops. The volcano responsible for this devastation and mass starvation is not known, but 850 years is a short gap in geological time. Somewhere this monster is dormant and could erupt again. –The Guardian

November 5, 2012 – INDONESIA - About 74,000 years ago, the Toba volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupted with catastrophic force. Estimated to be 5,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, it is believed to be the largest volcanic event on Earth in the last 2 million years. Toba spewed enough lava to build two Mount Everests, it produced huge clouds of ash that blocked sunlight for years, and it the left behind a crater 31 miles (50 kilometers) across. The volcano even sent enough sulphuric acid into the atmosphere to create acid rain downpours in the Earth’s polar regions, which researchers have found evidence of in deep ice cores. “We have now traced this acid rain in the ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica,” glaciologist Anders Svensson, of the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement. “We have long had an idea of at what depth the Toba eruption could be found in the Greenland ice cap, but we found no ash, so we could not be sure,” Svensson added. “But now we have found the same series of acid layers from Toba in the Greenland ice sheet and in the ice cap in Antarctica. We have counted the annual layers between acid peaks in ice cores from the two ice caps and it fits together.” The ice cores could offer more evidence about how the changed Earth’s climate was drastically changed in the years after the colossal eruption. Researchers had previously estimated that such an event would have prompted a cooling of up to 10 degrees C (18 degrees F) in the global temperature for decades, but the ice cores show the cooling was probably short and not consistent across the globe. “In the temperature curves from the ice cores we can see that there is no general global cooling as a result of the eruption,” Svensson said. “There is certainly a cooling and large fluctuations in temperature in the Northern Hemisphere, but it becomes warmer in the Southern Hemisphere, so the global cooling has been short.” The new evidence also promises to settle some archaeological debates. The Toba eruption occurred at a critical point in early human history when Homo sapiens were first venturing out of Africa into Asia. However, there is wide disagreement about how early human were affected and whether large parts of the population were wiped out by the blast. Layers of ash from the Toba eruption have been found in Asia and serve as a very important reference horizon for ancient archaeological clues from this period that are too old to be carbon dated. The ice cores now provide another backdrop against which to place ancient finds. “The new precise location of the Toba eruption in the ice cores will place the archaeological finds in a climatic context, which will help to shed light on this critical period of human history,” Svensson said. –Live Science

Auckland scientists have made a world-first discovery, sighting complete specimens of the world's rarest whale for the first time.

And they didn't find just one spade-toothed beaked whale, but two, confirming the species still exists.

The pair, a mother and her calf, were seen by scientists when they stranded on Opape Beach in the Bay of Plenty in December 2010. The whales later died.

See a diagram of the whale and where it was sighted here

Lead scientist at Auckland University Rochelle Constantine said they were initially mis-identified as Gray's beaked whales - a more common whale to wash up on New Zealand shores.

The Department of Conservation measured the 5.3m female and her 3.5m male calf and took tissue samples, but genetic analysis at Auckland University revealed they were actually spade-toothed beaked whales.

Auckland University researchers confirmed the species after studying three skull fragments found around New Zealand and Robinson Crusoe Island in Chile.

Fragments were first discovered in the Chatham Islands in 1872, but scientists didn't begin studying them until 2002.

Analysing the fragments, they realised the genetic profiles from each fragment were the same, but did not correspond to any other known species.

Constantine said there was sufficient DNA evidence to confirm they were the bones of the spade-toothed beaked whale, but up until the pair washed onto the beach it was unknown whether they still existed.

The discovery was published today in international journal Current Biology.

Because the pair which stranded in 2010 were the only two whales of the species to ever be seen, they are considered to be the rarest in the world.

"It's incredible to think that, until recently, such a large animal was concealed in the South Pacific Ocean and shows how little we know about ocean biodiversity," Constantine said.

Following the genetic identification of the whales their skeletal remains were exhumed, with the permission of Whakatohea Iwi Maori Trust and the Ngai Tama Haua hapu, and taken to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

"Australia will play host to such an event next week and all eyes will be on the horizon overlooking the Coral Sea in Tropical North Queensland as the total solar eclipse casts an incredible shadow across the region on November 14.

Port Douglas and Cairns will be the best places in the world to witness this natural phenomenon.."